THUNDER BAY – If and when Nick DeGrazia’s name gets called at this weekend’s National Hockey League Draft, there’s a good chance he’ll be standing over a putt, not staring at his phone.
The18-year-old Thunder Bay product, ranked 85th among North American skaters by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau, is spending Saturday at Centennial Golf Course, playing in a tournament with his father.
An avid golfer, DeGrazia figures if he’s drafted, friends and family will let him know pretty quickly.
“I’m looking forward to it, but I kind of just think about it as just another normal day,” DeGrazia said on Friday afternoon, hours before the draft’s first round was set to start in New Jersey.
Rounds two through seven will be staged on Saturday.
“Obviously there are little bit of nerves that come into it, but I’m just trying to play it cool and see what happens.”
DeGrazia, who played midget hockey for the Thunder Bay Kings, was overlooked in his minor-midget year and instead in 2019 was grabbed by the Sudbury Wolves in the Ontario Hockey League’s 2019 under-18 draft, for players that might have been missed the first time around.
He spent his first season away from home with the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Rayside-Balfour Canadians, where he put up an impressive 61 points in 46 games. The 6-foot-1 forward was slated to join the Wolves last season, having scored a goal and an assist in a brief four-game stint in 2019-20.
The pandemic forced the cancellation of the OHL season and Degrazia returned to the Canadians, where he dominated, putting up seven goals and 15 points in 10 appearances.
At one point ranked as potential second- or third-rounder, DeGrazia said it was tough to keep developing his skills and keeping the attention of NHL scouts with limited opportunity to play in meaningful competition.
“I was lucky enough to get in 10 games in the NOJHL there. But other than that it was just staying in the gym, staying ready to go and ready to play to just keep working on my skills and my strength. That’s pretty much it,” he said.
DeGrazia said if he gets drafted, it’ll be due to his offensive talent. But he added he’s not just a one-dimensional player.
“I’m an offensive-minded, skilled winger. I like to put the puck in the net, but I also think my defensive game is starting to come around and I’m starting to become a bit of a two-way player,” said DeGrazia, the grandson of former long-time Thunder Bay city councillor, MPP and MP Iain Angus.
While there’s a good chance he will get drafted – he’s also ranked 144th overall by McKeen’s Hockey – he knows nothing is guaranteed in hockey.
But he’s fought to get where he is today and if his name doesn’t get called on Friday or Saturday, it won’t be the end of the world, he said.
“In minor midget I went undrafted and I didn’t really take it to heart. I just realized that you’ve got to put in the work to get where you want to be. That’s exactly what I did and that’s exactly what I’ll do if I don’t hear my name called tomorrow.”
